Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia 1860-1910, John B. Toews, 1988

tion in Ohrloff, aided by progressive elements in Rudnerweide and Alexanderwohl, became something of an oasis for ongoing religious vitality. It was now time for the Lutherans to help the Mennonites in Russia. In faraway Brandenburg, a gifted family named Lange had left the Lutheran church and joined the Mennonite congregation in Brenkenhofswalde. Their son Wilhelm had already been ordained a Mennonite elder in 1810. A man of broad-ranging religious interests, Lange was in contact with the Moravians in Prussia, especially one Gottlieb Jahr. Almost a century later, when the Russian Mennonite historian Peter M. Friesen read two Brenkenhofswalde confessions of faith copied by Wilhelm in 1812 and 1815, he was "amazed at the theological training and broad classic religious insights which these simple farmer-bishops... developed." 19 Forty families led by Lange left Brenkenhofswalde for the Molotschna in 1835. They settled in Gnadenfeld, a village soon known for its mission and Bible study groups. Not all Mennonites were impressed by their religious zeal. Some referred to the new settlers as "fanatics" and "goody- goodys." 20 For the next decade and a half Gnadenfeld dominated religious-cultural developments in the Molotschna. It was an im- probable sequence. Moravians with their emphasis on evangelism and the enjoyment of personal salvation significantly influenced Mennonites and Lutherans in Prussia. Lutherans with names like Strauss, Klatt, Rabe and Lenzmann affiliated with the Mennonites and joined them in an eastward migration. 21 The imported piety generated a type of redemption for other Mennonites in the Molotschna. This was especially the case when Friedrich W. Lange, a younger relative of Wilhelm, succeeded him in 1841. The new school in Steinbach to which David Epp sent his son reflected a segment of this dynamic religious-cultural energy. Unfortunately scandalous rumors involving Friedrich led to his resignation in 1849. The congregation remained without a leader until 1854. What happened to its cohesiveness and sense of 16 common purpose in the interval? Did this affect its stability in the early 1860s? No lesser figure than Bernhard Fast, who may have resented the popularity of these "foreigners" or simply acted with characteristic impetuosity, figured in Lange's deposition. 22 The sins which Bernhard Fast and his fellow Mennonites committed against the former Lutherans were not laid to their charge. Though the Molotschna settlement experienced a spiritual and cultural leveling off during the next decade, the "Gnadenfeld enlightenment" endured in both the spiritual seekers and teachers it produced. Schools, books, dynamic religious leaders and new migrants were not the only realities in the Chortitza and Molotschna settlements. While David Epp was intensely preoccupied with building the City of God many of his fellow Mennonites focused on erecting the earthly city. Possession and